2y ago

Maduro orders the 'immediate' exploitation of oil, gas and mines in Guyana's Essequibo

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday directed the country’s state-owned companies to “immediately” begin to explore and exploit the oil, gas and mines in Guyana’s Essequibo region, a territory larger than Greece and rich in oil and minerals that Venezuela claims as its own.

The announcement came a day a day after Maduro got the victory he sought in a weekend referendum on whether to claim sovereignty over the region.

Maduro said he would “immediately” proceed “to grant operating licenses for the exploration and exploitation of oil, gas and mines in the entire area of our Essequibo.” He also ordered the creation of local subsidiaries of Venezuelan public companies, including oil giant PDVSA and mining conglomerate Corporación Venezolana de Guayana.

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2y ago

Maduro orders the 'immediate' exploitation of oil, gas and mines in Guyana's Essequibo

apnews.com /article/venezuela-guyana-essequibo-territory-dispute-maduro-referendum-20d923994e30da1812997f22c2036f88

28 comments

This is going to end in a war.
- With who's army fighting though? Guyana seems a bit too small to properly be able to defend itself from Venezuela... Unless Brazil goes full on South America police on the situation (and apparently, they might?), I don't see how this will end in anything other than Venezuela steam rolling Guyana...
  
  UN intervention is actually a possibility, though.
  
  This is going to trigger a South American equivalent to the Gulf War. The US isn't going to tolerate this and the Organization of American States seems to be united against Venezuela. Venezuela may steamroll Guyana, but a US led coalition is going to steamroll Venezuela back.
  
  I don't think the domestic support is really there, but America plopping a single carrier group off the coast of Venezuela would send more than strong enough a message. and we could eradicate any invading force in minutes.
  Ideally, Guyana is able to request aid from an international coalition, and the US can act in that capacity rather than be seen as unilaterally playing world police again.
- End? I think the word I'd use would be "Start".
Almost definitely being egged on by Russia to further distract the international community (and particularly the US) away from Ukraine.
So instead of failing at one country, Maduro and Co. can fail another country as well, fantastic!
And it's not like Venezuela didn't have everything one could dream to be a paradise: oil, minerals, forest, land, hydro, beautiful beaches, amazing and varied natural wonders... Everything mismanaged to the ground. And now a two-bit invasion perhaps inspired by their buddy Putin? I bet they wouldn't try that with French Guyana, Brazil or Colombia but who knows these days with crazy autocrats?
The World certainly doesn't need another conflict but perhaps this will turn bad and break Chavez's "legacy" and give Venezuela a chance not to be governed by more thieves (one can dream).
This is the best summary I could come up with:
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday directed the country’s state-owned companies to “immediately” begin to explore and exploit the oil, gas and mines in Guyana’s Essequibo region, a territory larger than Greece and rich in oil and minerals that Venezuela claims as its own.
Maduro said he would “immediately” proceed “to grant operating licenses for the exploration and exploitation of oil, gas and mines in the entire area of our Essequibo.” He also ordered the creation of local subsidiaries of Venezuelan public companies, including oil giant PDVSA and mining conglomerate Corporación Venezolana de Guayana.
It is not clear how the Maduro administration intends to implement the idea of exercising jurisdiction over the territory once it’s officially declared part of Venezuela through a law that is to be soon discussed by the National Assembly, which is controlled by the ruling party.
In addition to the announcement regarding the exploitation of resources in Essequibo, Maduro announced Tuesday the creation of a new Comprehensive Defense Operational Zone, Zodi in Spanish, for the disputed strip, similar to the special military commands that conduct operations in different regions of the country.
Its interest piqued again in 2015 when ExxonMobil announced it had found oil in commercial quantities off the Essequibo coast.
Guyana has denounced Venezuela’s actions and Sunday’s referendum as pretext to annex the land.
The original article contains 368 words, the summary contains 224 words. Saved 39%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

28 comments